


i know what i'm not

by FreezingRayne



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga), Killing Eve (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 14:05:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18262835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreezingRayne/pseuds/FreezingRayne
Summary: “Interesting,” says the bone-bleached winged creature with the rictus smile that has melted into being from between streaks of sunlight. “I didn’t think it would be someone like you.”(Eve Polastri picks up the deathnote.)





	i know what i'm not

**Author's Note:**

> Written for al on twitter! Thank you!!

She shouldn’t pick it up. 

Eve knows that when she sees it, and not just because it’s battered and ugly and streaked with dirt. Chaos drifts from it the same way it does from a tornado or a burning building. Right now she is a bystander. If she touches it, she will become part of the story, and that would be a bad idea. 

She does it anyway, because Eve has built a career on making questionable choices and riding them out. 

“Interesting,” says the bone-bleached winged creature with the rictus smile that has melted into being from between streaks of sunlight. “I didn’t think it would be someone like you.” 

Eve needs something to lean against, but she is on a sidewalk, and there’s nothing. So she sits straight down on the concrete. Her heartbeat slams through her palms when she pushes them against the ground. The people passing by look at this strange woman sitting on the ground in a public thoroughfare, hair a mess, probably drunk at 3 in the afternoon. None of them look at the monster. 

“What—.” Eve chokes on her own saliva. “What’s happening?” 

The monster nods down at the little black notebook still clutched between Eve’s fingers. Silver lettering spells out a title in a language Eve has never seen before. Nevertheless she still knows what it says. 

DEATHNOTE. 

“Sounds like a grunge band,” she mumbles, flipping open the cover. Inside is a numbered list of rules. She reads it swiftly. Then she reads it again. A third time. She closes her eyes. 

When she opens them again a clawed white hand waits in front of her. She starts, but not from fear. She is strangely calm, almost artificially. Like whatever this thing is exudes an aura of magical Xanax. The monster doesn’t feel like a danger. Or, it doesn’t feel like a danger to her. 

She takes the offered claw. It’s like holding hands with a bird of prey. It pulls her to her feet with no apparent effort. 

“Eve Polastri.” The monster’s English is whispery and thick but—like the writing on the book—is totally understandable. “My name is Villanelle, and you have picked up my Deathnote. I am your servant.” 

Villanelle drifts behind her on the walk to the bus stop. She stands in the aisle on the ride home. She follows her up the front steps to the house. When Eve unlocks the door and steps over the threshold, she looks back over her shoulder. The porch is empty. Maybe the monster can’t come into human dwellings. Or maybe she’s finally woken up from whatever sleepwalking dream she’s been in since she left the office. But there she is, drifting a few inches off the floor in the kitchen. 

“Do you just…live with me now?” 

Villanelle smiles. “Do you have apples?” 

“What?” Eve is derailed. 

“I like apples, Eve.” Villanelle looks at the bowl of fruit on the counter, which is conspicuously free of apples. 

“I’ll get you some apples,” Eve hears herself say. She puts the deathnote down on the counter. Then she puts it back in her bag. She doesn’t want to risk Niko finding it. “No one beside me can see you, right?” 

“No, not unless they have a compact with a god of death.” 

Eve breathes out. Out on the street she can hear someone yelling at a dog. “Is that what I have with you?” 

Villanelle studies the row of cookbooks on the shelf. She opens the fridge and looks inside it. “Not yet. Not until you use the deathnote.” 

“Use it to kill someone.” 

“Right.” 

“And I do that by writing their name and thinking of their face.” 

“Yes. But keep in mind, a human who uses the deathnote can go to neither heaven nor hell.” 

“That’s fine, I don’t believe in either of those place.” 

Villanelle smiles with a mouth full of jagged teeth. 

“What if I never use it?” Eve asks. 

Villanelle comes around the counter. It’s all Eve can do not to step back. The monster makes her feel impossibly small and vulnerable. 

“You will, though.” Villanelle puts a claw tip against Eve’s cheek and drags it toward her mouth. She doesn’t press hard enough to draw blood, but it still hurts. “You won’t be able to resist for long.” 

Eve’s breaths grow more shallow. Up close the monster’s eyes are flat black holes. An absence. “You don’t know that,” Eve says. “You don’t know anything about me.” 

“Hmm…” The claw moves to tip up her chin. “Of course I do. I am old. I have watched humanity since the beginning. None of you can resist power for long.” 

Eve flees upstairs. She knows Villanelle will follow her, but she doesn’t know where else to go. She’s chilly with sweat. 

“If I take a bath, are you going to watch?” 

“If you ask me not to, I won’t.” 

Eve pulls off her shirt. The monster drifts soundlessly into the bathroom after her. Eve isn’t a exhibitionist. She wouldn’t be comfortable taking her clothes off and getting in a bath with a woman watching her. A human woman. Probably not even a monster. But Villanelle…

Eve is still sure she is going to wake up at any time, or suddenly fall into the panic attack that she is sure is hovering right at the edges of that perception. But until then…Villanelle doesn’t feel like a stranger. There’s no reason to trust a giant floating monster woman who follows you home and tells you she can kill anyone, but…she does. 

“Are you just going to stare at me?” 

Villanelle says nothing. 

“Aren’t you bored?” 

“No.” 

Eve turns off the water and slips into the tub. It’s too hot and she hisses. Villanelle watches without blinking. She doesn’t appear to be breathing either. Eve would think she was going crazy, except her brain could never come up with something that looks like this. 

The deathnote is sitting on the edge of the sink. Eve doesn’t know why she brought it in with her. She should just throw it out the window and let some other poor bastard find it. That’s what she should do. 

But she knows she won’t.


End file.
